Casandra Lopez in Conversation with Evelina Zuni Lucero

2013 Indigenous Writer-in-Residence

Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 5:30–7:00 pm, Free

Video editing by SAR volunteer John Sadd

On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, SAR Writer-in-Residence Casandra Lopez conducted a reading of her work. Hosted by noted writer Evelina Zuni Lucero (Isleta/San Juan Pueblo), this event included a conversation between Lucero and Lopez followed by a reading of Lopez’s work. Casandra Lopez is of Cahuilla, Luiseno, Tongva, and Chicana descent. Lopez has been preparing her novel-in-stories, When We Were Hunted, for publication during her tenure at SAR. Her writing centers on a California Indian/Mexican family grieving the loss of Michael, the complicated man they knew as their father. Each of the chapters/stories is told from one of three alternating perspectives, which include the two children and mother of the family.

RSVP by Friday, February 15, 2013 to iarc[at]sarsf.org or (505) 954-7205.

About Casandra Lopez

Casandra Lopez is of Cahuilla, Luiseno, Tongva, and Chicana descent. She received her MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from the University of New Mexico in 2012. She also holds an MA in Educational Counseling from the University of Redlands and a BA in Design with a concentration in American Indian Studies from Cornell University. Lopez’s work has been featured in several publications, including “Remember This” and “Brain Bullet,” Caesura (2012); “What Remains,” Sakura (2012), “Between the Dust and City,” High Desert Journal, 14 (2011); and “When Later Sounds Like Love,” The Tower (internet publication, 2010.)

Lopez feels that the SAR fellowship will help hone her writing skills. She will be in residence at SAR from January 3–February 21, 2013.

Evelina Zuni LuceroImage courtesy of the author.Evelina Zuni LuceroImage courtesy of the author.

About Evelina Zuni Lucero

Evelina Zuni Lucero, Isleta/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, is assistant professor in the creative writing department at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She is author of Night Star, Morning Star, which won the 1999 First Book Award for Fiction from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

She co-edited Simon J. Ortiz: A Poetic Legacy of Indigenous Continuance (University of New Mexico Press, 2009), a collection of interviews, creative pieces and critical essays focusing on the life and work of poet Simon J. Ortiz.

Her fiction has been published in various journals including the White Shell Water Place, Kenyon Review, Studies in American Indian Literatures, Oregon Literary Review, and others. She was a Civitella Ranieri Fellow at the Civitella Ranieri International Artist Center in Umbertide, Italy, in 2004.